Family History Originating From the Pale of Settlement

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The Ellis Island Legend

When I was young I was caught up in the Ellis Island legend, probably because of the books I read and the movies I saw.* I thought all immigrants came to the United States through Ellis Island until it closed in 1954. When I got a little older, I realized that people–a large portion of Chinese immigrants–also came through San Francisco.

At some point, the gardener and I found out that Ellis Island records were online through The Statue of Liberty – Ellis Island Foundation, and we tried to find his paternal grandparents, Isidore and Celia. Alas, we could not find them.

Now I know that there are several places immigrants arrived when they came to this country, and that Ellis Island didn’t open until 1892. Still, what did that mean for the gardener’s relatives?

Let’s start with Celia Goodstein. Although we weren’t able to find her on the Ellis Island records years ago, now that I know she came into this country with the surname Gutstein, it was very helpful. Also, that her name was listed as “Civie.” I can find her now as Cisvie Gutstein, arrival date 20 November 1909 on the ship, the Caronia. An image of the ship is available, but I am expected to purchase the image if I want it.

Then I read something very cool. About 2.5 years after Celia arrived on board the Caronia, the Caronia was the first ocean liner (wow, I didn’t realize a steamship was also an ocean liner) to send the Titanic a warning about the ice ahead. I imagine that the ship has been depicted in some way in one or more movies about the Titanic.

So, Celia did arrive through the portals of Ellis Island. She is part of the Ellis Island legend.

Max Goodstein, Celia’s uncle, arrived 10 June 1906 on the Umbria. He can be found on the Ellis Island Records under the name Mordche Gudstein.

Max’s wife Neche/Anna and the children came in through Ellis Island on 20 July 1907 (a few months before Malke) on the Celtic. On the Ellis Island records search I find Neche listed as Nuche Gutstein.

Isidore’s sister, Malke, is listed on the Ellis Island records under the surname Schiskin, rather than Scheshko. She arrived on the ship Patricia 23 November 1907.

What about Isidore himself? He arrived in 1913. UPDATE: I have the ship manifest records for his arrival, thanks to Inna. See line 16 on both pages.

Ellis Island, 1902, from Wikipedia

I do think that we were right to begin with, that all the gardener’s paternal relatives came to the United States through Ellis Island.

There is a legend that someone in the gardener’s father’s family had been in the United States since Civil War Days. That would be a real stretch if it were true since they all came from the Russian Empire. So far what we have found is that Malke came before Isidore and Max came before Celia. But who came before Malke and Max? Berl Silberberg and Max XXXXX. If you recall, Max XXXXX has a last name that we have not been able to decipher. And no luck so far with Berl Silberberg. It would be fun to find them and see who was here before they were!

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* Think about this a minute: Above I mentioned books and movies. Most of what we read and see has been “reconstructed” history–that is, we experience history through stories written by our contemporaries or at least not by individuals who lived through the period. These are secondary sources.

Primary sources can be fascinating. I’d like to “argue” that fiction that was written as contemporary fiction, but is now in a historical period, is a great primary or first-hand source.

Have you ever heard of the writer Abraham Cahan? He wrote books about the Jewish immigrant experience while it was happening well over 100 years ago. Cahan was born in Belarus in 1860, and as a young man and teacher he immigrated to the United States. In the 1890s and into the early 1900s, Cahan published novels and short stories. Yekl: A Tale of the New York Ghetto and The Rise of David Levinsky are two of his most famous. I also recommend the story “The Imported Bridegroom.” I haven’t read it in years, but I think I need to re-read it!

13 thoughts on “The Ellis Island Legend”

I haven’t read any of Cahan’s works, and I really should. Thanks for the recommendation! As for Isidore, someone just posted on Facebook in TTT (I think) that FamilySearch now has a database of Ellis Island arrivals. Their search engine is somewhat different from Ancestry’s so maybe you will have better luck there. I haven’t tried it yet, but the FB poster claimed he/she found things she/he had not been able to find on either Ancestry or the Ellis Island website.

I think Cahan’s work would be fascinating to you, especially because of Pacific Street. He’s a half-forgotten treasure. Interesting re the Family Search database being different. Funny thing is, I’ve used Ancestry and also the Ellis Island Foundation records, and in just these few individuals found a discrepancy in Celia’s first name which I mentioned above. Thanks for the info, Amy!

Enjoyed the post Luanne…I have quite a few family members I can not find their passenger records for either. So maddening! Just saw Amy’s post and will be toggling over to check on it. Don’t forget Boston point of entry and a few others up and down the coast. Thank you for the book recommendations too.

You have to wonder if it’s always a misspelling that causes them to be lost. Or can there be other causes? I dunno . . . . Do you know how to specifically look for Boston, other than randomly discovering that stuff on Ancestry or Family Search? I think Cahan’s books are really important. They document what it was like for the immigrants during that period from a first-hand perspective.

Check on the site Stephen P Morse https://stevemorse.org, great site, you’ll find Baltimore, Galveston, Philly…he has so much I couldn’t begin to explain. Really take a look at it if you haven’t seen it already. I just ordered 2 books that were recommended, 1 on Greenwich Village, the other a quilt book recommended. I love recommendations and I will have to take a look on Cahan’s books. On my to do list! Let me know how you like the Morse site. I fiddles around with the FS Ellis site, while a a lot of different hits were discovered so much more to look at

Wow, I had no idea so much could be done with that website. I will give it another look! You have been busy, Sharon! My mom was here for a few weeks and then I got sick right after so I am a little behind but that just means I have some good projects ahead of me!

Always interesting, Luanne.
I was talking a bit to my mom today about ancestry stuff, but there’s so much she doesn’t remember now. Also–she’s not the only one who has a different name on her birth certificate. Her cousin does, too, and her cousin said she thought other cousins also had names. I think they were all named Sara or Miriam. . . 🙂

What a shame that she doesn’t remember. And the confusion of the names makes it so so difficult. It can so crazy. My paternal grandmother’s name at birth is identical to her sister just older than her and her sister just younger, except that their 3 names are in different order :). hahaha

This post reminded me of my mother’s research into her Finnish ancestry. We also thought they had entered the states via Ellis Island, but she found out they did not. Instead, it was somewhere else that I cannot recall now, perhaps in Canada? I will ask her soon. I think we were just so sure that it was Ellis Island because of it’s popularity and visibility in media and other stories we had heard.

Interesting! There are a lot of different ports, but during that big wave of immigration from 1892 on it was Ellis Island. But imagine how many immigrants came between 1850 and 1892! I don’t know the ports in Canada, but will soon be on that for the gardener’s mother’s relatives who are Canadian!